The Harper government's anti-democratic actions have been so numerous, it's easy to lose track of them.

I almost forgot, for instance, about the way it clamped down on that little bird-watching group in southwestern Ontario, putting its charitable status under surveillance after the group raised concerns about government-approved chemicals damaging bee colonies.

Don't

It's that time of year. The holiday season, when people seem to be divided over embracing the joy of the season or counting down the days until January 2 with clenched teeth. I admit I am in the latter camp. While I accept that many lovely things happen for people at this time of year, my eye is drawn more to the less-spoken-of underbelly -- the slogans of goodwill that obscure the social inequality so many people face.

Don't

News on the Ebola outbreak is often overwhelming. With over 4,000 deaths in West Africa and increasing concern in North America, it is tempting to tune out media coverage -- particularly as coverage spans from the outrageously scare-mongering to the intimidatingly technical. But even as the risk of North Americans contracting Ebola remains very small, other issues in health care have become apparent in its wake. More than any threat of Ebola, the politics of racism, care for uninsured people and hospital underfunding pose great risk to the majority of people across Canada and the U.S.

Don't

This morning, numerous health organizations across Ontario called on the provincial government to ban medical tourism. Medical tourism is the practice where health-care institutions create for-profit programs to attract patients from other countries to come to Canada for health care on a pay-for-treatment basis.